The Daily News. TUESDAY. SEPTEMBER 18, 1917. KORNILOFF'S REVOLT.

Taranaki Daily News, 18 September 1917, Page 4

The Daily News. TUESDAY. SEPTEMBER 18, 1917. KORNILOFF'S REVOLT.

The leader who succeeds in a revolt is regarded as a hero, but the leader who fails therein becomes a traitor. That is the difference between success and failure, but it implies many other things that till up the gap. On September 12 the New York World stated that General Korniloff was more likely to bo known to history as a rebel than as a dictator, and that forecast seems to have been accurate. The arrest of KornilolT has put an end to his revolt, which was a clumsily conceived movement devoid of preparation and trusting chiefly to chance support. That he possessed courage is beyond question, for it was proved in the Carpathians in 1915 and agaly in the arrest and deposition of the Czar. It is not improbable that his popularity led to his undoing by fostering an ambition to become a. second Napoleon, but ho lacked the ability to conceive and the . .pacity to carry out an organised revolt to a successful conclusion; hence his downfall. Never has a more blundering and amateurish attempt been made to obtain power than that of Korniloff. Even supposing for the sake of argument that he was misled by promises of support that never materialised, there still remains the dominant tact that instead of removing Iverensky from his path he allowed the man in control to keep a firm ITold on the reins of the Government, giving him the advantage of the telegraph and other services wherewith to defeat the aims and hopes of the would-be dictator. Komiloff's proclamation .was, it must be admitted, a cleverly worded, plausible document, but it was ill-timed' and unbacked up by that promptitude <4 action and resource without which no such movement can succeed. In meeting and remedying such a desperate crisis as Exists in Bussia, attractive proclamations are worthless. There must be tangible evidence that a man who poses as the saviour of his country is the strong man of the hour in action as demonstrated by the means adopted to attain the end in view. Judged from this point of view Korniloff was a complete failure, and Jiad even temporary success crowned his efforts it is quite likely his intervention would have ended in a welter of blood. Kcrensky, on the other hand, has been tireless in action and full of courage in facing.the great difficulties into which his country was plunged both within and without, and he took good care to let the world know what ho was doing. He was in possession and controlled the strings, exhibiting creditable insight and determination. That is what pleases the crowd; hence lib success. He has many of the qualities which go to constitute a strong man, and that is tho leader, above all others, that Euxsia needs to-day. Throughout his revolt Korniloff ha 3 been hesitating and resourceless and his manifest bungling proved his unworthiness for the position to which he aspired. He only made matters worse instead of better, and the collapse of his scheming removes a trouble that should never have arisen, but it may open the way for others to tread in his footsteps and then Russia may be rent assunder by internal strife from one end to the other. Iverensky has a firm grip of the situation, Why not give him a chance to win through? All the changes of Ministers and generals now going on indicate the chaotic state of affairs and implies that an attemut

Is being made to put the right men in the right places. Tliat there are intrigues in plenty may well he the ease, and these are inevitable, but the engincefing of an armed revolt such as that of Korniloff's shows the need for drastic measures if Russia is to fee. saved.